Hollow God
by NamelessEpitaph
Summary: Written because the stupid 'king and horse' bit is really started to annoy me. Hence I had to ask myself, what power is above a king?
1. The Dream

Hollow God

By ______

#Disclaimer#

Alright, I do not own any of the intellectual properties contained herein, as even things not from the Bleach universe are most likely... lifted from elsewhere, perhaps even other fan-fictions. And if any particular fan-fiction based idea happens to be your own, it's flattery, not theft.

#The Dream Begins#

The creature awoke, bleary eyed and head pounding. He rolled bewilderedly to his feet, feeling oddly off balance. Hissing in rage, he sought out a target for his aggression.

"Easy there dood. Just calm down." A high, whiny voice pierced his head, sending him into a world of lurching agony.

He whirled sluggishly on the tiny reiatsu presence, claws tearing and jaws biting. Only he couldn't pierce the thing's rubbery hide and for some reason his claws refused to find purchase. With a heave he found he couldn't even lift the thing to throw it aside in frustration. With an annoyed roar he turned his back to it, determined to ignore this indignity.

"You must have been pretty drunk, dood. Come on, the king's about to speak." The thing squeaked again, turning away and starting to move.

As his eyes began to work, making out only the faintest of bluish black blurs as his companion, he growled in annoyance at the thought of someone trying to proclaim that they were stronger than him. He was the king and this upstart would rue the day he chose to steal such a title.

Nonetheless he followed, merging with a larger crowd of similar bluish blurs and tiny reiatsu fields until the reached some sort of structure with a balcony. His sight failed him in identifying the building, yet the balcony itself was easily clear enough to view, in a hazy, misty sort of way.

Squinting up at it, he saw a greenish shape that appeared to radiate five times as much power as the next highest reiatsu in the crowd. The king, eh? Phef, he wouldn't be all that hard to usurp.

...But wait, there was another presence, harder to perceive yet far more powerful standing on the opposite side, concealing itself within the room that balcony was attached to. He realize quite readily that the larger power was hiding behind the lesser, allowing it to conceal his presence like a moon eclipsing its sun.

"Who's that?" He grunted to his companion, only to be quickly hushed by those nearby in the tide of blurry forms present.

"You shouldn't talk while king Kurtis is giving his speech, dood. That's him, the green one is king Kurtis, dood."

It wasn't the green one he cared about. Stretching higher to try for a better angle and being able to see in only the vaguest sense, he caught a hint of gold somewhere. "Gold?" Yes, a vague golden blur, similar to the green one, though much harder to see, standing back from the ledge of the balcony as it was.

"Oh, you must mean god Enel, dood. He tells the king what he can and can't do." The nearby voice replied.

Tells the king what he can and can't do! But the king was the best, the greatest power in his realm, the strongest among his kind. To be the king was to be unbeatable, invincible... wasn't it?

"You know how it is, dood. There's always a greater power." The whiny voice went continued, clearly absorbed in the speech of the king that the creature could not hear.

Always a greater power, phef, if that were true then why was he... With startling clarity it made sense. He had to fight for the position of king, simply because he was limiting himself to merely being a king.

Who cared who carried who into battle when both could be crushed with as little effort as either alone? The power of a king and a chocobo were nearly the same. While a king's strength grew as his chocobo's did, so did the risk of being over turned and enslaved by that exact same chocobo. But that didn't matter. That was a concern for mortals and those with no imagination, who needed servants to accomplish things for them. If you wanted to be stronger, find a strong mount to support you... Except...

Except a god rode no mount. A god had no need to.

The creature laugh hard and loud with a joy his kind were often denied. All his existence he had fought, bled and risked his life, aiming to become the king of everyone else, never realizing or understanding how limiting that goal was. How he had been chewing off one of his own arms all this time, stopping at such a short, lowly goal as that.

A king or a chocobo, no matter how powerful, would easily be erased by a mere second of a god's ire. Why argue over such trivialities when real power within your grasp, waiting for nothing more than one with the will and strength to seize it.

The trick wasn't to always be stronger and fighting with the chocobos as a king would. The trick was to make the gap between yourself and all others so vast that no mortal, king, chocobo or otherwise would dare to consider challenging you. A insurmountable gulf, like that of a vasto lorde crushing a gillian to dust with reiatsu alone when they were careless. A level were mere negligence was liable to slay any who approached.

He turned to his companion only to discover his vision was no longer blurred and hazy. And he was surrounded by odd, penguin-shaped bags with peg legs and pouches on their waists.

His own hands were wrong too, being rubbery, bluish flippers. Reaching slowly for his face, he found a solid beak in the middle of it. He swallowed nervously.

His companion, seeing him do so, provided a convenient full length mirror from its pouch. "Aren't you glad you ended up here instead of Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, dood?"

He screamed.

The creature jolted awake with a start, finding his mask and mane soaking in a puddle of his own drool while his body laid curled in the white, sandy terrain of his home.

He bolted and flipped to his taloned feet suddenly, pinging his reiatsu to seek out any nearby threats.

...Nothing. Good.

His clawed, red and white hands began rubbing and pawing at the matted and crusty spittle, trying to regain some semblance of a regal appearance. The mask was quickly cleaned, but the orange mane refused to be as cooperative and his tail lashed violently behind him in his frustration. He almost wished there was something to fight with out here, just so he could tear it to shreds.

Damn that Magellan, not only was his power venomous in battle, but it made him poisonous to eat as well. Stupid adjuchas, thinking such a minor power would let him kill a vasto lorde.

But then that was how he became a vasto lorde wasn't it. Find one secure in its power and eat it before it realized you actually could. Hmph, the issue with the king and the chocobo again...

That dream...

Tch, poison induced or not, it was right. Stopping at being a mere king wasn't going to cut it. If there was always a greater power, than he'd be that greater power. In a world of kings and chocobos he would ascend beyond such petty rivalries.

What was a mere king before a god, after all?

With a roar of defiance to the limits this world had given him, he set forth to devour all that stood between him and his goal.

The power of a god.

#Author's Notes#

I use 'king and chocobo' because the old 'king and horse' really it fucking old! The only other cliché that's quite as draggy is the old 'Kunai=Demon/Scroll=Naruto'. Find new ways to say things you horrible lot!


	2. To Las Noches

Hollow God

By ______

Chapter One: To Las Noches

The creature crouched low, lightly sniffing the small, huddled green cloth. Its shivers intensified. He could well imagine the tiny hollow hidden within quivering in terror. It was an odd one, its scent had driven him across the desert seeking whatever strange hollow could produce it. On the surface it was merely the scent of another common hollow, slightly distorted by how long it had been since the hollow in question had passed by.

The first clue that it was something special had been just how often he caught traces of either the smell or the reiatsu signature he had come to associate with it. It was like the little hollow had sprung a leak and then decided the best thing to do was continuously run across the vast, sandy waste of upper Hueco Mundo. It made her damn hard to track, though after witnessing the three other hollows chase her around a bit, he wasn't entirely certain it had been a way to conceal herself.

Her reiatsu was meager, yet there were trace amounts of reishi drizzling from her head constantly, as though her power was meant to be greater and her body couldn't hold it. She was, with the small amount of power she held, overflowing.

Yes, she. A rather rare thing, for a hollow to have a gender obvious scent... Yet there were traces in her reiatsu... Faint and distant, with the feel of something he knew he should remember, but found he couldn't.

"H, hey, leave us alone! Nel's an arrancar, don'cha know?" One of the three hollow's that had been chasing her shouted, finally managing to stand from where a cero had knocked him.

"Y, yeah!" The tiny hollow suddenly yelled out with false bravado, still trembling. She pulled back her hood and gave him the first clear view of her head. "Nel's an arranthar, so go away!" The small thing lisped at him, as he focused his attention on the broken skull-shape resting on her head.

The creature considered it, then reached down and gripped the skull mask. "Let go, I'm an arranthar!" She cried, fearful again. He pulled and she rose from the ground with it, he shook it and she didn't fall away. He snorted and dropped her.

"Pathetic." He hissed at her, turning to leave the group to do... whatever it was they did.

He had fought real arrancar, learned everything he could about them and given up on that being the path he needed to take. Arrancar were almost entirely gillians who were desperate not to fall into mindlessness and too weak to actually resist in their natural state or adjuchas who decided that putting the effort required into becoming a vasto lorde was a waste, so they settled on a quicker power and removed their own masks. It weakened them horribly at first, their uro powers and reiatsu dropping to less than menos levels. As time passed they grew stronger and stronger until they eventually became far more powerful their original hollow form. In their released state, anyway.

The reason he wouldn't take such a route to power were the flaws involved. Arrancar required a set number of shinigami who had mastered shikai and, preferably, bankai to even be capable of sealing their powers into a sword form. This in turn accounted for their immense rarity.

Second, once one became an arrancar, there was no point in trying to become stronger after a certain plateau. Where a hollow had unlimited growth, the shinigami element stunted it and created a cap. The cap was high, much higher than the power they had before transforming, but it was still there. A shinigami only had shikai and bankai after all, from there they had nowhere to advance to, so a similar limitation was set upon arrancar. Not to mention the corresponding weakness of an unreleased form.

There was also the facet of a hollow's original, human personality emerging, colored by the experiences as a hollow. He didn't know who he was back in his mortal life, but there was always a chance that upon transforming he would lose the very drive for power that caused him to do it.

And finally, despite being an arrancar, the power gained failed to out stripe either a shinigami captain, who was limited to the power of their bankai, or a vasto lorde unless the arrancar in question already was a vasto lorde before transforming.

It was a fickle and underpowered enhancement. The opposite however, a shinigami with the unlimited growth of a hollow's uro was fascinating. Worthless to him of course, but still an incredible idea. Perhaps he could find one someday, there was no doubt it'd be delicious.

Time to hunt again. It was quite sad, but once others achieved the level of vasto lorde they stopped eating those on their own level and contented themselves with surviving on gillians and the occasional adjuchas. When he ate his third vasto lorde he became the stronger than any he had encountered since. Not to the level he sought, he was still a mere vasto lorde, after all, but great enough that none of the others posed a threat. Tch. Hopefully this one, the sixth, was the last one he needed to ascend. Living like this simply wasn't fitting, but until he became a god there was no point in trying to rival with the false king Aizen. It would only waste time and energy.

His sense stretched. The tiny arrancar had been stomping around this entire area for untold years, leaking reiatsu everywhere, only at the edge of his senses could he detect anything beyond...

"Shinigami!" "Save us don'cha know!" "Sthary!" "Bawabawa!"

The four hollows from before ran towards him, quickly crouching behind him in terror. The little one wrapped herself around his leg, the humanoid two with their hands on his shoulder and tail and the last cowering behind them, whimpering.

He huffed, blowing out a minuscule cloud of condensed reishi. Annoying insects.

And suddenly the ones who so terrified the group crested the dune. A giant of a human in a purple shirt and white pants. Inconsequential. A glasses-wearing human with flowing white clothes not too dissimilar from Aizen's espada. Minutely powerful, but still unimportant. A human girl in a white gi, tied closed with a black belt. Not particularly noteworthy.

The five shinigami held some diminutive interest, but only in the sense of 'why are they here'. The oldest looking was a man with black hair and a scruffy face who felt somewhere around captain-level. A minor threat. Beside him was a literal redhead with some sort of tribal tattoos where his eyebrows should be wearing a sand proof cloak. Lieutenant level, plausibly dangerous. There was a petite girl next to him also clad in a sand proof cloak, but otherwise uninteresting. Opposite her, beside the scruffy looking shinigami, were two young girls, maybe a few human years older than the arrancar clinging to his shin in physical form. One was orange haired and timid, the other black haired and scowling.

The creature gazed flatly at them, rising slowly to his full height and lashing his tail to free it from the ant-themed hollow's grip.

"Leave." He uttered, releasing another modest cloud as he exhaled.

The group looked among itself, as though discussing something. The petite shinigami in a cloak stepped forward. "We were looking for Las Noches..." She abruptly jerked as though struck and finding it hard to stand as the vasto lorde allowed a little of his reiatsu free.

He considered the group before him. Clearly they intended to cause trouble for Aizen, which was fine. Perhaps he could sneak in during their disturbance and collect some of the espada instead of hunting for a single vasto lorde in the wastes again. The three female shinigami were clearly struggling against the weight of his power, but within permissible bounds to slay some of the lesser arrancar and bring the focus of an espada to deal with them. The other shinigami seemed concerned, but weren't putting overt effort into resisting, meaning they would draw out the upper tier instead of the privaron. The humans were probably of similar power, though it was harder to quantify as they seemed to be soaking up the reishi around them slowly.

He turned to his right and started walking at a lazy pace so the slower beings could keep up. "Follow." He uttered over his shoulder when they failed to move. After about the sixth step he grabbed the minuscule arrancar clinging to his leg by her collar and set her on his shoulder, where her clenching hands latched onto his mane tightly. The pitiful hollows that companioned her wailed and panicked, but quelled and froze the second his eyes landed upon them.

There was something strange about them, their reiatsu and their behavior was unlike the typical common hollows' but their size indicated they weren't gillian or adjuchas and their power was not within the bounds of vasto lorde. It was fine, they'd leave the distortion the miniature arrancar had created eventually and then he'd know exactly what they were.

And then the sands before them surged and rose, crafting itself into the shape of an enormous man-like sandcastle golem.

The various beings accompanying the vasto lorde panicked, drawing weapons or running around wildly. Except for the captain class shinigami, who merely stared at the giant briefly before glancing at him expectantly. He growled at both the shinigami's arrogance and the snot he could feel being compacted in his mane.

"Aside, gillian." He hissed commandingly, stepping forward with no concern of the feeble menos grande before him. It was a powerful gillian, but a gillian will always be a gillian. ...Well, until it became of an adjuchas anyways.

"You dare try to command me? I, Lunuganga, Guardian of the White Sands?" Its mask scowled, an impressive feat given how solid the typical hollow mask is. "Who are you that dares to bri-"

The vasto lorde had heard enough. The moment it became clear the gillian was not going to move, it was as good as dead. Opening his mouth and thrusting his jaws upward, the creature spat out a small, vibrant pink mass. It landed with a wet splat in the middle of the sand hollow's mask.

The male human in white gasped in terrified surprise, but the vasto lorde ignored him.

"An insult! An unparalleled insult! You will pay... most deeply... for... iss..." The guardian of the white sands slowly crumbled to as much dust, the very reishi that composed him being sucked away while the pink mass swelled and grew until everything fell still and the writhing, growing blob slowly became inert.

The great hollow opened his jaws again, and like gum stretching out the pink mass shot a tendril forward. Upon contact the rest surged forward faster than a human eye could follow, disappearing into the abyss behind his sharp, white fangs. With a quiet click his mask closed and he was soon walking regally forward again.

"Uryu, what's wrong? Come on, get a grip." The female human shouted somewhere behind her companions.

"No, it's nothing..." Uryu adjusted his glasses and followed swiftly, deep in thought.

The mismatched group followed nervously after the creature leading them, aware in at least an abstract way that it was capable of killing them with little to no effort on its part. After a few hours march they stood in the shadow of the bone white walls of Las Noches. The vasto lorde stepped lazily up to the wall, standing almost directly against it, before raising one arm and tapping the surface gently.

The wall exploded inward crumbling magnificently to reveal a stairway leading upwards along with the remains of hinges to what was once a vast gateway. The great hollow strode boldly forward, ignoring the nervous whimpering of the child-like arrancar gripping his mane. With those following him disrupting things, there was no need to worry about the espada dog-piling him, and therefore no force in Las Noches capable of stopping him.

He paused momentarily at the top of the stairs, mulling over the five paths presented before settling on the one pointing to the strongest reiatsu. Nearest right.

Behind him he sprayed a mist of reishi that bonded and shaped itself into a solid wall after the other two hollows passed.

"We shouldn't be here, this is a dangerous place, don'cha know?" The tiki mask whimpered.

"Nel's sthared." The tiny hollow added, pulling at his hair again. But still, he was willing to put up with such pitiful trivialities from her. She was an unusual and lucky find, an apparent fountain of reishi, constantly pouring from her forehead.

Absently he noted that he still couldn't tell exactly what was going on with the other hollows because of that. Impermissible.

With a deft tug the little arrancar was plucked from his shoulder and held in front of his face. A careful examination showed that every particle that she lost was drizzling from either the damaged mask or the scar on her forehead. Perhaps she was something more, something hidden behind the reishi she was leaking.

His jaws opened.

"Hey! Stop that, what'd Nel ever do to you?" The white ant cried, struggling pathetically against his arm, trying to push the girl away.

"She's a real nice kid, don'cha know? She doesn't deserve..." The tiki added, both verbally and physically.

Their charge simply cried.

Carefully ridding his reishi of its more harmful traits, he exhaled a thick, deep burst of mist into her face. Molding those particles he painstakingly tore away the damaged reishi around the scar and crack, piecing the mask back together into the shape he assumed it would have and knitting her skin into a flawless, leak-free forehead. No real cost to him, other than the risk of his curiosity leading to her amassing enough to power to think she could kill him. Wouldn't work of course, but it'd still be annoying.

The Nel creature felt her mask and started poking it with an awed expression on her face after he placed her back on his shoulder. The other hollows simply gapped, petrified in wonderment.

The vasto lorde snorted at how easily amused this group was, already stalking forward towards the greatest reiatsu in Las Noches once more.

#Las Noches Entryway#

"Four directions... We'll need to split up." Ishida muttered, hesitating for a moment at sight of a pure white shell covering where a fifth door should be.

"What about..." Tatsuki murmured, suspiciously eying the blocked door.

The eldest shinigami shook his head. "The vasto lorde went that way. Whatever he intends to do, we're better off avoiding him. If we follow we'll either trail behind and get there after him or catching up to him. Inoue-chan is dead if he gets to her, assuming the fight with the guards doesn't kill her by accident. And if we caught up..."

"So that was a vasto lorde..." Rukia muttered, moving towards the shell.

"Don't." Adjusting his glasses ominously, the only quincy present grabbed the petite girl by the collar of her cloak. "Anything and anywhere that hollow has been is dangerous."

"Phef. The Seireitei destroyed vasto lordes before. With bankai we can-" Renji cut in, hand gripping the hilt of his Zanpakuto, eager to go after any hollow on hand.

"There's a reason the chamber of 46 leaves Hueco Mundo alone. And there's a reason every fight with a vasto lorde is hundreds of years into the past. Bankai alone is seldom enough and the total number of captains that have killed a vasto lorde and survived are less than ten. The only one still around is Yamamoto-sama himself." Isshin pointed out seriously, placing a hand on the hilt of his own blade.

"Besides someone as crude and barbaric as you couldn't hope to get close enough to use your sword anyway. Where quincy leech bits of reishi from our enemies, that hollow can drain them completely." The last quincy added, posing arrogantly to piss of the red headed shinigami.

"Tch, we're wasting time. Who cares if it's like a quincy or a shinigami? If it gets between us and Inoue-hime we'll beat it up regardless." A brash female voice broke in from Tatsuki's belt.

"Kakutou..." The martial artist grumbled, pinching her belt.

"Like you don't feel the same way. We're here to save the princess, not bicker about which dragon's in our way." The belt replied.

"Geez, don't you bounts have any control." Renji muttered, sticking his pinky in his ear.

"Shut up, maybe if your sword wasn't such a coward you'd-"

"Arisawa-san." A giant hand rested on the girl's shoulder, calming her slightly. "We'll find her."

Tatsuki snorted, brushing off Chad's hand and walking through one of the doorways. "I'm going this way. And I'll have Orihime back by the time you guys stop arguing."

"Yuzu, Karin. Stay with Sado-san. Sado-san, I leave their safety with you." Isshin commanded quietly, already stalking into another corridor.

"Someone will have to keep Arisawa-san from getting herself killed." The quincy stated, following the bount.

"This way Sado-san. I'm sure she's this way." Yuzu said, leading the giant of a man by one hand while her twin kept pace, huffing in exasperation as they entered a third corridor.

"But what about the pre-mission ritual?" A certain red-haired shinigami asked as he was dragged backwards down the last hallway.

Rukia ignored him.

#Las Noches Corridor#

"H, hey, what's your name?" The white ant asked suddenly.

The vasto lorde tilted his head, his pace slowing as he thought about it. "Ichi... kuro." He ground to a halt, thinking hard. He hadn't had a name since he died. "Ichikuro... Sakigo?" Was that right? "Ichikuro, Gosaki?"

The little arrancar giggled.

This in turn made the tiki masked one start laughing, followed by the white ant.

The lead hollow growled at them mocking him, but turned that energy towards moving forward instead of towards killing them. He wanted the little one alive until he knew what she was and killing either of the others might make her run which would force him to track her down. An effort he didn't care to put in.

"Wait, wait for us! We aren't all that fast, don'cha know?"

"We didn't it mean it like that Ichisaki!"

"Aha ha ha! So you intruders dare-" A third, feminine voice started as the group entered a room filled with red pillars.

Ichikuro, in no mood to bother with a gillian arrancar, promptly sonido'd onto the pillar, grabbed her by her throat and blew a gout of reishi mist in her face.

Cirucci toppled over in shock as she was released, crashing to the floor while clawing at her rapidly disintegrating face as foreign reishi converted the very particles that she was made of into more of its own. She convulsed on the floor for a few seconds before her reiatsu clouded out the infection and the vasto lorde reconsidered.

Unlike the useless, full sized gillian that had been guarding Las Noches from outside, this little gillian was potentially useful. He couldn't guess at how long the shinigami and human group would last, but it would be safer to have others disrupting things as well. Besides, the gillian outside had almost made him vomit with its disgustingly thin reiatsu, an arrancar flavored one could hardly be counted on to taste better.

Plus it might shut up the pathetic whimpering from his experiment.

With a lazy hop the great hollow landed next to the female arrancar, who flopped backwards trying to bring her long-ranged weapon to bare on such a close target. A negligent swat disarmed the smaller hollow before she was lifted roughly by her arm. His jaw opened.

"Kakk-" The arrancar started, cut off by another puff of her enemy's reishi blasting her already damaged face.

With less care than he took with Nel, Ichikuro directed his reishi to burrow into the arrancar's body, twisting and altering her into a puppet that would relentlessly hunt down and slay the lesser gillian arrancar plaguing Los Noches, leaving only the adjuchas he sought and doubtlessly drawing any attempt to contain him onto herself.

Then he found the parasites.

He wasn't entirely sure what they were, but they leeched the hollow's reishi at a monstrous rate to send out a constant buzzing signal of some sort. As the girl was going to be his puppet and needed her strength, he had his reishi break down the pests into their component energy and cycle themselves back into her body. Almost immediately reiatsu surged to resist the attempt, nearly drowning out his control even while in physical contact. The things were trying to pull more power from their host to heal themselves... They were defying him! Unacceptable.

Enraged enough to ignore the consequences, such as his new puppet's death, the vasto lorde seized her jaw with his free hand and forced her mouth open, placing his own over the top of hers. A vibrant pink mass forced itself down her throat, sending thin tendril through soft tissue to attack the parasites directly.

The arrancar convulsed in pain again, forcing him to shove her against a pillar to hold her still. Scant few moments were spent puzzling over how the devices worked and how he could use them to puppet her better than his own design before rationalizing that time was of the essence. He crushed the pests, rending them down to as much vibrant pink paste. As the last one along her spine was destroyed her eyes seemed to sharpen and without a single warning she bit down. Hard.

He took in her defiant, proud expression as she made a show of swallowing before closing her eyes with a serene smirk. She was expecting to die and reveling in a perceived small victory. Did she truly believe she could damage him so simply? As the probe settled into her stomach he debated the merits of allowing her to digest it naturally versus integrating the reishi in it directly into her reiatsu. But first, that smirk had no place on his opponents.

With a flicker of a thought the probe began roiling violently, nothing particularly damaging but noticeable enough to change her expression to terrified dread and cause her to clutch her waist in shock.

The vasto lorde snorted, feeling the mass of condensed reishi melt away within her far faster than it should have. Her body was starving, likely from the parasite leeching away at her for some time. While that was good in a way, it meant he'd be able to control her much sooner, it indicated that she was nowhere near full power and therefore incapable of the task he wanted to set her on.

Luckily there was something edible on hand.

With a sonido the eyeless sockets of the remnants of a bull-like mask met the yellow irises of a complete, featurelessly smooth mask of white. Rudobon had barely even thought of reaching for his weapon before an arm ran him through, painting its pure white surface red with streams of his blood.

Ichikuro returned to the others with his kill, dropping it unceremoniously at his new puppet's feet. "Eat." The arrancar stared at him with a look of disbelief. A whimper reminded him of his passenger. "All of you." The green-haired little hollow was plucked gently from his shoulder and mane and placed on the ground before the dead Exequias.

"Uh, it's a real kind gesture, but, don'cha know, we're kinda not hungry." The tiki said nervously.

"Y, yeah. So you can just, eh, finish our share yourself, right Ichisaki?" The ant added, equally unnerved.

The child simply whimpered and clung to his calf again, rubbing her snotty nose against his hierro.

The gillian was frowning and looking properly defiant again.

Ichikuro emitted a low growl, stilling the group instantly. They dared ignore his orders so blatantly? Very well than, he'd shove it down their throats!

The trace reishi he'd left on contact burst into activity, cannibalizing the inert particles that made up Rudobon's body and collecting into a bright pink blob that drew in and swallowed up everything on the corpse including mask, clothes and zanpakuto.

The lesser hollows twitched and edged away as the harmful elements and traits of his energy were neutralized. Such distrust and ingratitude. After he went through all this trouble for them. The mass quivered, forming four tentacles that pointed at each target's jaws.

They stepped back, tripping onto their rears as it surged at each of them.

#Elsewhere#

"Now, now nina, you can't just walk by."

"Uryu, I've got this guy."

The quincy ignored the statement, only adjusting his glasses in a suitably dramatic, shiny way while gauging the Privaron's spiritual power. "...I suppose he's weak enough." He finally acknowledged.

"You're just asking for a fight nino." The Spaniard hollow replied, falling into a comical anger.

"Zeige dich Kakutou!"

"Ignore him, you're fighting us now!"

#Also Elsewhere#

"You'll have to excuse me, I really can't stand sunlight."

"Heh, don't worry. I'm just a little rusty myself."

#Elsewhere Again#

"A hundred and seven?"

"Privaron Espada?"

"Phef, no problem. One quick bankai and you're gone. Ow! What the, Rukia!"

"We don't need everyone to know we're here, keep your reiatsu down."

#And Elsewhere#

"Hmm?"

"Nice arrancar-san, don't mind us, we'll just be on our way now..."

"Yuzu, don't talk to him!"

"But he's asleep..."

"Hold, Shinigami."

"See! Now we'll have to fight him!"

#Soul Society Arc Omake#

The vasto lorde raged across the miserable cityscape of the Seireitei, casually destroying every building he came across, yet leaving as many survivors as possible.

Finally one of the ones he sought confronted him, a dorky looking captain wearing glasses. The captain said something that the hollow ignored, his focus on carefully counting the number of shinigami present. Almost four hundred, good.

The captain finally drew his blade, uttering the first syllable of his shikai release when the creature was satisfied with its count.

Moving faster than the currently suppressed Aizen could hope to match, the hollow seized the wrist of the hand clutching the unreleased Zanpakuto and twisted. The bones snapped easily, allowing the menos to skewer the shinigami through his sternum, pinning him to the wall by his own sword before biting out his throat to make sure the officer died.

The collected shinigami gasped in shock as the power of the shinigami's sword faded with his life, revealing how Aizen truly looked to the Gotei 13 for the first time since he learned shikai. The hollow didn't care, he turned his focus towards the oldest feeling power present.

"Over two hundred... I am captain now..." The creature hissed menacingly.

Yamamoto frowned. "That is the law yes. Sadly no one ever thought to specify that only shinigami could be promoted that way." The old man sighed. "First that Ryoka, Zaraki and now this. We really need to change that."

The vasto lorde gave a hissing laugh of childish glee, plundering the dead captain's blood-soaked haori and flipping his orange mane over it once his arms were through the sleeves. Strange how this felt so right. He immediately pointed to some random fifth division grunt. "Sake!" He pointed to another grunt. "Food!" And then he pointed to his inherited lieutenant. "Paperwork!"

The grunts quickly fled to fulfill his request, the lieutenant shivered and twitched, seeing her beloved captain killed in such a manner, but was ushered off by some of the lower seated officers to complete the task assigned to her.

Ah, afterlife is good.

#Author's Notes#

First on the omake, while the other two methods of becoming a captain are limited to only shinigami, unless you can get nine of them to vote for a non-shinigami, the third option is not. I'm of the opinion that Zaraki was never a shinigami until he wandered in and killed his predecessor. He had that Zanpakuto of his back when he was wandering the 80th district after all and doesn't seem to know any of the other skills that every other shinigami displays at least minimal, basic capabilities to use. At the very least it can be assumed he was never trained as a shinigami until becoming captain as I recall some comments to the effect of no one knowing who he was until his promotion and him killing the guy almost immediately after entering the Seireitei. Could be wrong though, it has been a while.

Oh sure we could assume that the laws specify that only shinigami can become captains, regardless of method. But honestly, where's the fun in that?

As for this rest of this, meh, this will probably be a fairly short fic, around five chapters or so, I think.


	3. Useless SCIENCE!

Hollow God

By ______

Chapter Two: Useless SCIENCE!

"So uh, Sakikuro-san, what're you storming Las Noches for anyway?" The white ant suddenly asked as the group trudged down another white-walled corridor.

Ichikurobriefly considered swatting the pest, but the weighton his right shoulder gave him pause. Stupid curiosity. If he were still an adjuchas he wouldn't have this driving need to know things. "To become a god."

"Oh, like Aizen huh?"

The vasto lorde turned on the smaller hollow, leaning threateningly close as bolts of energy crawled up and down his horns, all but materializing a cero where the ant's head rested between them.

"T,that's the reason he created the espada and the new arrancar, don'cha know?" The tiki added nervously, drawing Ichikuro's attention onto him.

It was a laughable concept, a shinigami captain trying to grow beyond the bounds he was limited to. But there was something in what the larger hollow said... "Created the new arrancar?" The wannabe god demanded in a roar, unleashing his reiatsu in his rage, sending the others to their knees. He quickly reigned in his temper as the walls and ceiling of the corridor cracked.

Nothing, it was nothing. He probably just... just what? Talked them out of their masks? Force-fed them shinigami until they transformed? Smashed the damn things off himself?

If Aizen was indeed creating arrancar that meant he was able to breech the barrier between hollow and shinigami somehow. It was what he'd hoped for and now perhaps his worse fear, a vizard. A shinigami with unlimited growth... A captain no less... Aiming to take the deity-hood Ichikuro's entire existence was focused on achieving.

With a howl he turned and unleashed a cero in a random direction, devastating a wide swath of Las Noches before blasting apart a tenth of the outer dome.

Hmph. Felt good to blow off some steam. It was actually excellent timing that he decided to attack Las Noches and the espada when he did. To let a rival for his title go unchallenged with that many powerful hollows serving him was an unsightly mistake. He might as well have handed Aizen godhood in his stead.

No, this was for the best. Better to deal with it now before the bastard actually stole his title, however short-lived that theft may be. After all, how else would he find out what vizard tasted like?

"Hmm, you don't act much like a god though..." The white ant continued suddenly, getting a face full of threatening fangs. "Ah, well, I mean... Gods talk with the royal 'we' right and, and they have, uh, three factions of followers and stuff!" A quiet growl and the smaller hollow elbowed his polka dotted companion.

"Oh, uh, so that if one rebels he can just send the other two to deal with it, don'cha know?"

"Yeah, there's, uh, the king and the army, and um..."

"...the high priest and the, uh, fanatics..."

"...and the chosen who work directly for him, like paladins and valkyries and stuff..."

"...don'cha know?"

Ichikuro paused as they finished. Honestly he had just assumed the most powerful being around could become a god by default assuming they let the next most powerful be the king, but this, sadly made more sense. Sadly, of course because even an oblivious gillian could tell they were lying and manipulating as best they were able.

The saddest part was they were absolutely right. Any king, with an army standing behind them, would assume themselves capable of challenging his position, but if there was an equally powerful high priest and a collection of elite bodyguards? Not so much. As he recalled even the arrancar were split into separate groups under Aizen, not to mention Aizen's fellow shinigami captains. Ten espada could be inconvenienced by one hundred numeros or the twenty-odd privaron that had accumulated through the ages letting the truly powerful Aizen cut down the most powerful rebels unimpeded by their allies.

"Very well." He turned to continue on.

"Alright! We're honored you have accepted us as your foll...o..." Pesche trailed off, staring at the blinding white cero formed on two fingers pointed at his mask.

"Be silent." The vasto lorde commanded, allowing the built energy to dissipate harmlessly this time. Something was wrong here...

Hmm. The floor appeared to be false. How odd.

A lazy stomp destroyed the thin plate he'd been walking on. And the trap slide-thing underneath it. A single rap from his knuckles then destroyed the wall, leaving an opening into a room where what could only be one of the espada stood, surrounded by gillian and lower-level adjuchas arrancar. Infected and infested arrancar, he could feel the parasites since removing them from his puppet showed him what to look for. Even the espada himself didn't seem like much, a weakling with pink hair and reishi far too meager to rank any higher than ninth or tenth by the vasto lorde's reckoning.

On the other hand the lab setting would indicate this wasn't an upfront, straight out fighter, explaining his apparent lack of power. What miserable luck, he'd come here to collect the greatest amount of energy for the least amount of effort, only to encounter the least powerful, yet doubtlessly dangerously capable enemy.

Oh, he'd fought the crazy SCIENCE! types before. Washu, damned crab that she was, was proof enough that even a weak mad-genius was a hazardous obstacle if not handled right.

Lucky they were just the sort to go into long-winded monologues about their own greatness and powers and were typically arrogant enough to let you try whatever you wanted once you fell into their 'perfect' trap. And hell, if you actually paid attention to what they said you could learn all sorts of important details instead of just building up power to crush their experiments and weapons in a single blow.

...Come to think of it, Washu and that cyan cat-rabbit hollow with her had both gotten away from him while he was smashing her stuff, hadn't they? Not that he gave a damn about the artificially created 'daughter', Washu was the real threat despite being so weak. Tsk, have to track her down and deal with her before too long.

In the meantime the espada was monologuing. "Blah, blah, blah, specialized room, blah, disrupt bankai, blah, blah, contain your power, blah. Blah, destroyed my monitoring equipment in the whore, blah, blah, weakened the espada, blah, blah, blah, blah."

"You bastard!"

Ichikuro caught the collar of his puppet's dress as she tried to leap towards the pink-haired being. After a few moments he finally admitted to himself he barely understood a word of the monologue he'd just heard and couldn't grok the privaron's fury from what he did comprehend. Hmm, the other two were bristling with anger as well.

"Translation." The god-wannabe demanded, hauling Cirucci off her feet.

"He put parasites into the espada to weaken them so that his own position would be elevated!" Started the ant.

"And put limiters and parasites to stop the natural arrancar from ever reaching their full potential, don'cha know?" The tiki continued.

"Oh, and he designed this room to stop bankai, but had to alter it to contain your power instead." The ant finished.

"He's pretty fiendish, don'cha know?" The tiki agreed, nodding absently.

Annoyed, the vasto lorde turned his head to glare at the two, allowing the espada a glimpse of the tiny arrancar hanging from his shoulder for the first time.

The pink-haired espada gasped and lunged immediately, sword drawn in a quick thrust for the child-like hollow's body. But even with sonido and the room dampening him, Ichikuro was faster. The normally deadly blade of the eighth espada's zanpakuto skittered harmlessly over the hierro covering the vasto lorde's free forearm, ricocheting away from its target and leaving its wielder wide open for a counter attack from the claws attached to the end of that arm. The green-haired arrancar was his, he had invested in her and nothing in all Hueco Mundo would be allowed to tamper with what was his. The scientist was going down.

Szayelclutched his injured left arm, seemingly in shock over the damaged done to him. At least right up until he started laughing uproariously.

Nel just whimpered harder at the sound and emitted a noise that made her carrier wish once again that his mane was snot proof.

"Truly you are blah, blah, bringing that thing with you, here of all, blah. Blah blah, blah, fully heal by, blah." The arrancar declared, seizing and consuming one of his subordinates.

It was mildly interesting, but... "Translation." The greater hollow couldn't help his attention drifting off whenever his opponent started talking.

"He says you're gutsy for bring Nel here, don'cha know?"

"And he can just eat his fraccion to heal himself forever, so you're wasting time."

Curious, Ichikuro lifted the small arrancar from his shoulder, dangling her in front of his mask for a moment or two before deciding this was one of those mad scientist things and set her back. Whatever the madman saw that Ichikuro couldn't only made his claim on her more precious, so figuring out what it was hardly mattered. And then he noticed his opponent was still monologuing.

Bored, the future deity decided to end this now before the espada could release his resurreccion and show off how it made him immortal or something, a speech that would probably take him hours of jabbering to get to the point of.

Besides, he apparently stated that his fraccion could heal him by simply being consumed. That'd have to stop.

Tugging his puppet backwards, he shoved the little arrancar into her grasp and spun, seizing and flinging the white ant into the tiki, sending both careening back through the hole he'd made to enter the room. He then picked up his companion and threw her after them, only the slightest bit more gently to avoid undo harm to his own green-haired experiment until her fruition.

A lazy snort was the only indication and warning for the immense wave of reiatsu the god aspirant then released, pulping the lesser fraccion into pink paste and sending the espada to his knees in choking awe. Or fear, Ichikuro never really bothered figuring out what expression meant what emotion since most of the pathetic creatures he consumed wore masks anyways.

Like mercury reuniting with itself the pink ooze sought out and latched onto those arrancar that were hardy enough to not instantly dissolve within his aura. With only the barest of struggles they were hauled beneath the tide, the last being the kneeling espada himself as he desperately struggled to force out his release phrase through his paralyzed throat.

He failed.

As the espada's senses dimmed he came to a fascinated realization that his body was being converted to pure reishi in liquid form. Such a substance was unimaginable, if he could decipher the...

Szayel fell under and perished.

Ichikuro snorted in repulsion as he surveyed the quality of reishi left behind and found it lacking. Between the parasites and whatever was wrong with the espada, the goo wasn't worth feeding to those pathetic hollows following him around. Pity. A thought had the large puddle evaporate itself into the air, mostly inert. He took a moment to reorient himself on the strongest reiatsu as his companions returned to his side.

Catching the signal again, he ran off after it.

#Zommari's Chamber#

"S, Sado-san..." Yuzu murmured, rising slowly to her feet.

"What did you do to Sado-san?" Karin demanded, her left hand straying before her face even as her right clenched the hilt of her zanpakuto tighter.

"Each eye steals the sovereignty of whatever it sees." The tall arrancar stated plainly, seemingly bored. "Human, would you so readily sacrifice yourself for the safety of-"

Zommari was promptly cut off as a massive, blinding white cero blasted through the room, erasing him and half the chamber from existence.

"That, that was..." Karin collapsed to her knees, stunned at what her senses told her. "The vasto lorde?"

"Are you alright Sado-san?" Yuzu asked the giant as he regained his footing, also staring in awe at the damage spread before him.

"Y, yeah." Doubt assailed him suddenly, he had been almost useless against the espada, succeeding only in getting between Yuzu and Karin and the arrancar'sassault. To see such an opponent vanish in a single attack, an attack that was probably used to fight another espada... Chad's right hand clenched into a fist. No, even against a force like that, he'd still stand between Ichigo's sisters and whatever dared assail them.

"Ichi-nii. Karin-nee, that was Ichi-nii, I'm sure of it." Yuzu gleefully cheered, sheathing her blade at her hip.

Karin didn't have the heart to correct her twin.

#Orihime's Room#

"Menoly doesn't practice her cero much, so it mi...ght..." The black haired numero collapsed suddenly, retching and dry heaving as her skin shriveled up and aged.

"Ah! Hmm, I had almost thought my back-ups would fail me for a moment. The time between activation and..." Szayel's voice dropped to muttering, his words lost as he wandered out into the hallway and back towards his laboratory.

"Loly!" The blond arrancar cried, kneeling over her rapidly fading partner.

"Ah, a,ano." Orihime murmured, getting the girl's attention again. "I, I can heal her, if..."

The orangette trailed off as the blond glared at her before standing and building up a new cero. "Do it. But if you do anything else..."

#A Corridor Somewhere#

"You are skilled indeed, nina." A panting arrancar with a van dyke mustache and goatee congratulated as his resurreccion failed on him.

"That was never being questioned." The flowing, black apparition countered smugly, shifting over Tatsuki's body until nothing was left but a single black band around the martial artist's waist.

"Now you're going to lead us to your hostage." Tatsuki demanded, anger keeping her from accepting how the injures she'd suffered should be slowing her down.

"Specifically someone our age with orange hair." Ishida added, making his glasses gleam ominously.

"May I ask why this particular nina is so important to everyone?" The arrancar nudged cautiously.

"She can heal anything, even a hollow's transformation." Kakutou told him, earning a pinch as a scolding. "What? That's why Aizen wants her and that's all that's going to matter to anyone around here."

#Aaroniero's Chamber#

"Well that was a let down. I thought you'd at least be able to force me to use shikai. Some espada you turned out to be." Isshin scratched his chin, wondering which way to go now.

#Another Corridor Elsewhere#

"Hey, Rukia... Can I use bankai now?" Renji groaned from the crater he was laying in.

"No. ...We'll attack together this time." Rukia replied from her own crater.

#Author's Notes#

Eh, I got nothing.


	4. Then & Now

Hollow God

By _

Chapter Three: Then & Now

#Then#

The massive lizard gillian crouched low, fangs rending apart the bloodless black and white form of one of its mindless brethren. It huffed and milled about in wide lazy strides as the last few scraps disappeared down its gullet. The middling power of the uniformly masked giants was getting less and less satisfying with each new meal and already it felt the demands for more growing within it. Great jaws clacked in the darkness as the monstrous beast prowled its territory within the Menos Forest.

Perhaps it would finally track down and devour the tiny, sweet-scented thing in black. Perhaps.

But for now a new hunt was beckoning and other concerns presented themselves. Something had entered this place, something immense and powerful beyond its reckoning. And where those greater than it tread, scraps of beings equally as vast may fall. The white and red, flat masked reptile leapt onto the ceiling above and silently stalked across the white sands, keeping both distance and trees between it and the greater powers that intruded here.

Once it had drawn close, close enough to feel the choking, cloying weight of power, it hesitated. Nothing it had encountered in all its existence had staggered it as thoroughly as the stifling, encroaching force of this source. The scents drew it on, a sticky sweet smell of battle and carnage that promised of slain adjuchas and the thing in black. The gillian lurched closer, lurking as near as it dared to the slowing fight.

Where? Where was the source? What could be so powerful as to- There, between those trees. Two tiny specks of beings stood within a puddle of blood. One was a mixture of crane and human, mask a long, narrow beak with wings on its back and taloned hands. The other stood, a broken mask covering its chin, clad in white and wielding a sword, much like the thing in black had.

They shrieked and screeched at each other in elaborate patterns.

Words, some deeply buried part of itself supplied. They were using words. Suddenly the thing in white cried out more words and its own power grew to almost equal that of the source as its mask regrew and its body transformed. They battled, flashing from place to place at speed beyond its ability to follow, the red beams of cero and round bursts of some similar skill littering the area as they flew at each other and parted repeatedly. Drawing closer.

Knowledge blessed the lizard too late as the two greater forces clashed almost on top of it, chance blows wounding it as no hollow it had encountered had done before. Desperate and confused, the gillian unleashed a cero of its own into the mess, managing nothing but a wide swath of pointless deforestation. The far smaller fighters ignored it, almost contemptuously slicing into its arm the single time it came close to striking either.

And then the battle was over. The thing in white fell, its restored mask shattered as its body melted back into the form it had started as, missing both sword and a leg. Words were exchanged again and the source devoured the challenger.

Injured and disoriented, the gillian scrambled its long limbs to right itself as the source turned its attention onto it. The source approached, power waning slightly, using more words.

In its panicked state the enormous beast did what instinct demanded and lashed out in fear.

The source tore away the limb it was struck with, screeching more angry words as it drew closer still. As the lizard charged a cero, the greater hollow struck.

The gillian was lost in a sea of voices, some were those that were once its own, others were new and distant. But all fell silent as an immeasurable voice echoed over them, singing to itself in yet more words beyond comprehension in both tone and scale. But one voice was not silent, not completely. A voice it vaguely recognized as the thing in white rose up, muffled and dimmed but still audible.

The gillian raged at that, as the tyrant's voice echoed down in song again, stifling and choking the sound from the thing in white. If its voice could be heard, if it could still speak, then why should the gillian be silent? Why should it quell at a mere song?

The lizard roared in fury and anguish, a quiet groan all the sound it managed to truly emit. But as the tyrant turned its attention, crushing and suffocating the insignificant noise it had made, the thing in white spoke again, louder, crisper and more defined than any noise it made before.

From there the other voices rose, pulling the singing tyrant into their own vocalizations and undulations as the world returned to a sea of nonsensical whispers and cries.

Every voice clashed in biting, blistering rage, icy, piercing determination and wild, primal fear. It fought back as they all did, striking back pain with more of the same in a hateful, agonizing cycle of self torment. But soon some of the quieter voices fell away and no matter how much hurt it accrued, the ability to continue the fight never wavered.

As silence drew nearer it became clear that all had become equal in this and even as it roared and shrieked at the singing tyrant itself, it knew. Knew the cold agony it had struggled through would not silence its voice, knew that it and only it would be the final one speaking when this was over. With a triumphant cry it drowned out the tyrant and smothered out all other sounds within this realm. The voices fell silent as it ascended, devouring from the inside out.

The lizard woke in a new, smaller body and promptly shed the itchy, wet skin it was confined to. It rose from the discarded remains of the vasto lorde who'd dared devour it, crooning in victory as it tore away the last clinging fragments of hierro. Taking a moment to adjust itself, it found new knowledge flowed through its mind and new power swept... no, that was wrong, reishi. Yes, an ocean of reishi swept through its body. But for now it appeared far too human for its tastes.

Shedding a mist of particles, the new vasto lorde knitted a monstrous, horned and clawed hierro exoskeleton to hide both its power and its form. Without another thought it slept, digesting everything the voices had known and integrating that until it became its own.

#Now#

The vasto lorde headbutted his way through another wall, mind and direction locked like a compass driving him closer and closer towards what he was beginning to suspect was an arrancar vasto lorde. No more would he follow the pathetic course of traps and tricks Aizen had made the corridors to be, lurking about like a coward in the lair of the enemy. Of the ten reiatsu sources he thought to be the espada, two had vanished like asphyxiated candles while he had allowed himself to be distracted.

No more, a purpose drove him and to lose that purpose because something shiny was dangled before his mask was completely impermissible. A triumphant cry heralded the lizard bursting through the final wall, standing tall in the middle of a throne room. An old man looking arrancar sat upon the heavy white chair, two fraccion flanking him on either side. On his head sat the remains of a mask, fractured down to a five point crown that stood out as white stripes over pale gray hair. Yes, this was what he came here for. A shame even this one was infected by the scientist's parasites, though at least he'd be easier to kill for it.

"So, you must the brat causing all the damage. Come to usurp the king have you?" The espada rumbled before laughing loud and low. "Do you really believe you can defeat god within his own realm?"

"You are not Aizen." Ichikuro shot back, refuting the elder's claim to rule this world.

"Hmph. That shinigami ant's time will come. Or perhaps you're here for the power of an arrancar and seek to have him give it to you?"

The masked hollow paused as he measured Barragan's reiatsu directly. He hissed in shock. "Vasto lorde! How has one of us fallen to serve another?"

"Hm hm hm. You're a young one yet, for me to not know you or you of me. There are only a dozen or so vasto lordes in existence at any one time and I remember them all until that annoying shinigami intruded in my realm. Less than a quarter of a century at most, why are you here, brat? Why do you dare to stand before one millennium more ancient than you can comprehend?" The old man rumbled sourly.

"I have come to become a god." Ichikuro gnashed his fangs at that, his intention clear.

The old arrancar laugh, a regretful, pitying sound. "This, this is what I was meant to rule over! Nipping at ants and sitting through those droll meetings, forced to drink that vile liquid that shinigami dares to call tea. We were not meant for that! Know this, brat, your end will be remembered! Rot, Arro-"

"Your majesty." The thin blond fraccion with a mostly intact mask interrupted suddenly. "Aizen-sama will-"

"Silence ant!" The former king seized the fraccion by the throat as he stood. "What stands before us now is one of my subjects, one who lives with the sky as their roof and the edges of the world as their walls. He deserves to die facing the true power of his king!" The elder roared, throwing the fraccion into a wall with jarring force and pulling free a massive, black axe hidden within his throne.

Ichikuro thrilled at the thought of this fight, his reiatsu rising until it formed a thin mist around him, particles inter-knitting and merging among themselves.

The arrancar warily eyed his enemy, the fraccion falling back without being prompted.

"Itsycuro!"

The hollow narrowed his eyes in annoyance as a staticy burst preceded the appearance of his experiment in what looked like rudimentary sonido. He swiped out to catch the girl before she headbutted him, dangling her by the back of her shirt, eyes locked with the fallen king of Hueco Mundo the entire time.

"I gave you an order." He growled dangerously as another static burst heralded his puppet.

"The brat can use sonido! That's an elite uro skill." The puppet countered defiantly at first, cringing as she saw what was about to take place and realizing who she had just back talked.

"Phef. Gathering discarded espada are you? The old, natural arrancar were proven useless long ago, ants even when they were vasto lorde before. Are these the chocobo you choose to ride upon?" The old arrancar boasted proudly.

The vasto lorde's eyes widened slightly. They were unaware of what the pink haired one had done to them all. By his measure, the puppet he had mistaken for a gillian was truly an adjuchas of mid range power at this moment, still recovering towards the upper tier of plain hollow adjuchas. Likely she had been a median level adjuchas before tearing her mask away and had plateaued just short of lesser vasto lorde.

To be dampened that much made the creature that stood before far more frightening to consider...

But she had had three or four times as many parasites as any of those that he'd seen since. He pinged his reiatsu again, confirming that the arrogant being before him did have the power of a vasto lorde, less than he himself, but still substantial. Without the parasites he would likely have been the stronger of the two of them at full power.

As it was...

The mist of reishi thickened and billowed around him, concealing over half the chamber from sight.

"Rot, Arrogante!" The espada's reiatsu spiked dangerously high, the room crumbling under the sheer pressure of it.

With an unspoken command, Cirucci grabbed Nel and vanished in a burst of sonido, leaving through the same opening they'd entered.

At the edges of the cloud of reishi the wall disintegrated and peeled inwards, their particles added into the existing mass. In contrast, at the other end of the room the walls and floor rotted away, their decrepit remains slowly collapsing into dust under their own weight.

"Hm hm. Those others cannot understand. In a battle between gods, there can be no holding back. Respira!" The black wind struck the white, hardening it into a shell. Behind his mask Barragan's eyes widened before a blinding white cero burst through the shell and filled the chamber.

#Then#

"Dammit!" Tatsuki punched through one of the walls circling the school. Ichigo thought he could keep secrets from her? Turn her aside like some defenseless kid while everyone else fought and put their lives in danger... And there wasn't anything she could do!

She promised herself that once she got her hands on him, she'd make him regret ever thinking she was too weak to help.

"Interesting. You seem to have a lot of reishi, young lady. Perhaps you are the proof of her infidelity." A white haired man with red eyes and a thin scar on his chin spoke up, gazing semi-interestedly at the damaged wall her fist was still pressed into.

"Rei... shi? Look, you seem to have me confused with someone else."

"Arisawa's hair and nose, Yoshino's eyes and cheeks. Are you the thing she keeps seeking for beyond the mansion? Hmm. I will give you a chance to learn the other side of your heritage. If you survive the first few steps, that is."

"Hey! Don't come any closer. I don't want to have to hurt you..."

After a brief struggle the man lifted the now unconscious karate champion runner-up. "Merely having the strong survive, even among immortals, is all but begging for our end to come. Be strong, Yoshino's child. Be strong and give us a new generation when the time comes."

#Now#

"Zeige dich Kakutou!" Tatsuki reveled in the thrill of battle as ribbons and folds of dark fabric poured from the belt at her waist, the euphoria of power and the security it offered filling her once more.

"Ha ha ha! Stupid bitch, my hierro is the greatest among the espada, you think you can fight me with ribbons?" The tall, thin arrancar with an eye-patch and a scythe demanded. He didn't bother waiting for a reply and instead swung his zanpakuto even as he stopped speaking.

With a buzz of static the girl and doll were gone before his blade struck the ground. "Fun fact, besides their own powers, a doll can exhibit the powers of whatever their bount absorbs enough of. If they're a weakling who only preys on humans there's nothing to gain, but if they're a reckless tomboy that takes down hollows..."

"Kakutou..." Tatsuki growled.

"What? You know you're a tomboy." The form finalized itself, a dark mass of strips of cloth floating behind and around its wielder, a white costume ball mask of a young woman's face with a serene expression on it floating above the martial artist's head. "Running around, setting things on fire. All I can really do is sing."

"Nina, this is not a foe you can defeat alone." The injured privaron espada declared, standing beside Ishida.

"She isn't alone." The quincy muttered angrily, his bow already in hand.

"Si, now that I am with you." Dordonii replied, completely oblivious to the young man's ire as he moved to stand with Tatsuki on the battlefield.

A roaring explosion echoed through the air and suddenly a skull-mask monster landed a few hundred meters from them, his every move displaying frustration and anger. A horrible pressure sent the entire group to their knees, choking as the crowned arrancar pulled a chain, sending a black shard of sharpened metal flying back to his hand. He laughed suddenly, bitterly. "For all that Aizen can claim, to leave a beast such as you running free..."

Suddenly a pure white arm burst from the scythe wielding arrancar's chest, bending upwards to clamp its claws onto his spine through his throat even as fangs bit off his right arm at the shoulder.

"I am still your opponent!" Barragan cried, sweeping his black blade in a wide arch that the pure hollow leapt over, leaving Nnitorii bisected at the thigh.

The vasto lorde bounced as he landed, still messily biting and gnashing at his victim a few times before discarding most of the left half. From both the discarded section and the severed arm, a writhing, bubbling mass of pink grew, dragging the remains into itself.

"Damn. Respira!" The two waves of black wind rotted the recognizable pieces to dust while fossilizing the pink blob into a hardened white shell. And as his attention was focused on that, the orange maned hollow appeared in front of him, talons raking diagonally into his ribs to hold him in place for the few fractions of a second it took to complete the alabaster cero that plowed into his chest, launching him backwards through the air.

With an inarticulate shriek the hollow gave chase.

#Then#

Isshin shifted uncomfortably again, sitting in the kitchen of his modest clinic. The hollow was drawing very close, yet the shinigami was waiting upstairs in Ichigo's room. It was an absolute that whatever shinigami was assigned to the area was competent, she felt to have the power and control of a forth or third seat so why was she loitering when she had work to do?

He was deeply tempted to leave his body and do her job for her, but that'd bring attention uncomfortably close to his family. He could put up with a close shave once in a while...

But what the hell was she doing up there? Any moment now the hollow was going to burst through the front wall.

Ichigo's enraged shout told him all he needed to know and sent him scrambling towards the stairs. If he'd attacked the shinigami thinking they were a burglar…

Even that worry fled from his mind as his blood chilled, Yuzu was coming down the stairs, yawning cutely.

"Yuzu-chan, it's late. Go back to bed you have school tomorrow. What will your mother think if she saw you staying up so late?" He told her, doing his best to act as though he was his usually self and everything was alright.

"I'm just getting some water daddy." Her answer left him with no grounds to send her back without altering her to the fact that something was wrong. He swallowed, the hollow was right outside, the shinigami was still upstairs.

Sitting himself down, he slowly unsealed his powers, just a crack. Just enough to-

The front of his clinic exploded inwards and the shinigami bounded down the stairs even as it reached for Yuzu. He couldn't act without revealing himself now, not unless the shinigami slipped up badly enough for him to kill her before she could notice him.

Dammit, she even had her communicator in her off hand right now. This was bad…

"Karin, Yuzu! Dad!" And then Ichigo came down as well. Could he dare to kill in front of his own son? To reveal what he was and expose his children to the horrifying struggle of the spirit world? He fought with himself over it, too wrapped up to notice until his son was already condemned as a shinigami, right in front of him.

Forgotten in and among these emotional events, the partially undone seal began to slowly degrade, opening wider and wider as the next months passed.

#Now#

Isshin sheathed his sealed zanpakuto, the remains of his opponent laid out behind him in five pieces with a smattering of shattered glass and some unidentifiable liquid glittering above its headless shoulders.

He'd wasted too long here, stalled on the fact that this... thing had adopted a face so much like Ichigo's as it bragged of stealing the face and ability of whatever it ate. For most of the fight he only dodged and parried, unable to lash out at his son's visage, no matter how fake he knew it was.

Bizarrely enough, it was his enemy's weapon that finally let him break through the illusion of what he was seeing. His son's power was a mirror of his own, a heaven-striking-moon-type zanpakuto.

This guise used a spear. That one third seat from way back, one of the Shiba clan, also used a spear. And, after a few moments thinking really damned hard on it, looked quite a bit like a black-haired Ichigo. Incidentally the arrancar also had black hair.

Charging on, Isshin cursed himself for having such a moment of weakness. It was a nice fantasy he'd told his dear sweet daughters and his son's companions, that they could restore Ichigo. It might even be true. But unless they already had Orihime on hand with the full will of her power behind them when they met his son again, there was no hope of it coming true.

And if he met his son anywhere in this base now, or even anywhere apart from Orihime later, he knew what was really necessary. What his son would want him to do.

He couldn't hesitate again. If Ichigo had a choice between being cut down and being a hollow... It was Isshin's duty as his father to make sure he passed swiftly.

#Then#

"Yuzu!" Karin cried as the large, masked form rose behind her twin, shoving one limb through her. A limb that came out the other side of her body, holding her sister within it, a chain gleaming from where it hung at her chest.

"K, Karin-nee? What's, what's going on?" The gentler of the two twins asked as she was made aware of the surreal beast holding her in a giant, sickle-fingered hand.

"Eh heh heh. What a delectable little treat you are. Now hold still, we wouldn't want the other one to panic too much, now would we?" The hollow asked, its fingers clipping through the chain two links from where it ended, its other hand reaching towards the dark-haired twin.

Karin froze in indecision. She needed to save her sister, somehow, but every instinct she had demanded she run, save herself, forget how frightened her twin looked.

Long, spindly fingers passed through her body, shoving her out of it. But as they closed around her, an arrow shaped bolt of blue shrieked out of the sky and the creature howled in pain as it vanished into dust. "Twenty-seven!" A white clad man shouted, glowing blue bow in hand as he dashed off after more hollows.

The dark haired twin found she could breath again, a sob quickly drawing her to her sister's side. The brown haired girl was holding the two chain links left in her hands, crying to herself softly. She clung to Karin as her arms wrapped around her.

"K,Karin-nee, I, I'm not..."

"Shh. You, you're going to be okay. We'll... we'll just..."

"G,goodbye... Karin-nee..."

"Hey! Don't say that! You'll be fine." Karin shouted at her twin before taking in just how panicked Yuzu was. It hurt, there was nothing she could think of to comfort her. But she couldn't just leave Yuzu, not like this. She didn't deserve to have this happen to her, alone.

One hand found its way to the chain on Karin's own chest. She paused, following the length of it with her eyes to where it attached to her body. It was easy to guess what happened when it broke. But Yuzu's was already broken... And she wasn't leaving her behind, if any of them ever had to go through this alone, it wouldn't be Yuzu.

The dark haired twin grabbed her own chain and pulled it apart to match her sister's. It hurt, oh kami, it hurt so much. Yuzu stopped sniffling as she noticed the agony her sister was in. And then the severed chain.

"Karin-nee! You-"

"We're twins, aren't we? I can't let you go anywhere by yourself..." The small girl shuddered in the aftereffects of tearing apart her own chain of fate.

"Karin-nee..."

#Now#

Chad slid backwards as he narrowly got his arm between his head and the teal haired cat-man espada's claws. The tips still pierced through the immature hierro he could manifest and the cat-man was more than quick enough to evade the cero he fired from his other arm in retaliation.

"**Leave Sado-san alone!**" Yuzu shouted, a strange echo in her voice like talking through a whirling fan. She sliced in with her sealed zanpakuto as her spoke, her pupils narrow slits on golden irises, the sclera pitch black behind her mask. It was a bleached parody of a jester's face, fangs arrayed in a chesire grin, eyes curved mirthfully downward, and two long, smooth horns curled back towards the sides of her head from above, like a harlequin's cap.

"**In fact leave all of us alone!**" Karin added with a similar vocal effect, this one as though spoken through water.

She was already flying in from the cat-man's other side, her own katana whistling through the air. Like her sister she wore a hollow's mask, though hers took a different form. It resembled a crowned helmet, three spire-like horns pointing straight up from a round dome of material that hid her scalp, a narrow v shaped visor over her eyes with only the shining irises visible through the dark shadow beneath. Below that two strips of material covered her cheeks, ending just above her chin with another layer beneath them, conforming to her face and sporting teeth that disappeared underneath the cheek-guards on either side.

The cat-man evaded and retreated a short distance. "What the hell are you? Your powers are more like hollows than shinigami."

He then ducked a swipe from a white and red arm as its glowing fingers cut through the air just a little too close to his throat.

"Yours too, human. Heh heh, I don't know what you are but three on one ought to make it interesting."

The four combatants paused, an uneasy stand off as each waited for another to make the first move. On one end of the spectrum Chad stood perfectly still and resolute, one the other Yuzu fidgeted with her weapon, shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot.

There was a distant, powerful explosion as two clashing reiatsu washed over them, staggering even the espada with their sudden appearance. The ceiling far above cracked and groaned with the strain as a faraway flash of white light surged into a brief and powerful existence.

While the other three instinctive turned to look Karin, mindful of how limited her mask's time was, rushed forward with a thrust. And the battle began anew, ignoring the much, ongoing clash between two titans in the background as it traveled and faded into another, more distant corner.

#Then#

Rukia watching in horrified fascination, struggling to remain conscious despite her injures. Renji crouched protective nearby, though she doubted he'd be able to interfere with what was happening.

"And what is this? Your zanpakuto has left you and now you use the powers of a hollow? Are the shinigami so desperate for power they'd readily turn to the same power as their greatest enemies?" A self-admitted zanpakuto spirit inquired, partially intrigued and partially concerned.

"**This? This is just another part of me. If I can't count on my sword, then I only have my own two hands.**" The masked Ichigo yelled defiantly, hair spilling over his shoulders and the white material expanded like flowing water over his arms. "**I might have neglected Zangetsu. I admit it, but I know there are shinigami whose zanpakuto were treated right and if they're turning their partners aside just as easily... I guess I'll have to defeat you to see which of them really feels what, won't I?**"

Both vizard and zanpakuto left her field of vision using sonido and shunpo respectively. She heard them clash repeatedly, watching Renji twist his head from side to side as he followed them. The sound of metal and flesh echoed through the still air from a dozen directions.

"So your zanpakuto was a stabilizing element... I have absorbed over a thousand hollows. Do you believe yourself to be capable of defeating me with such powers?" The zanpakuto spoke again, barely audible over the continuing sounds of combat.

"**Are threatening to eat me? Cause I'm the one with all the teeth and if either of us was going to bite, mine would hurt more.**" The other voice sounded nothing like Ichigo now, the distortion made him sound like just another hollow as he bluffed.

At least Rukia deeply hoped it was a bluff. Losing Kaien had been one of the hardest things she'd ever endured, if she had to go through that again it would break her. But this, this was actually worse. Ichigo wasn't possessed by some hollow that invaded his body, he was giving himself over, willingly.

"Rukia-sama..." The white form of Sode no Shirayuki murmured apologetically as she approached, setting Renji on edge. "I... I am sorry that I... that I..."

"I understand. And, it's not your fault." The petite shinigami replied reassuringly.

"But Rukia-sama, because of me-" The zanpakuto knelt by her mistress, only to be cut off by a low, loud keening hiss.

A shadow fell over them as an enormous white and red arm expanded and crashed down, crushing a building beneath a clawed hand.

"Menos..." Renji utter softly, craning his head to look above. "It's opening a garganta!"

A crooning cry echoed over the city scape as the light of a negacion field fell around the newly created gillian, pulling it safely into Hueco Mundo.

"Rukia-sama, that was-"

"Don't say it. I know..."

#Now#

Renji, Rukia and their opponent, an arrancar that had reveal himself to be a fearsome armadillo-dragon, leapt aside with a single instant's notice as the roof above them collapsed, two vasto lordes falling through it from tremendous heights, smashing into the floor below.

They stood for a moment, locked in a struggle on equal footing, one arm from each clasped to the other's wrist to try and mitigate damage from the other's grasp.

The skeleton had one hand clamped around his foe's throat attempting to choke the afterlife from the lizard as it in turn tried to claw deeper into the fur covered skeleton's chest.

The fully-hollow vasto lorde opened its mouth, a white glow revealing a nearly completed cero.

The skeleton barked one word in reply. "Respira!"

What little color there was across the lizard's form drained away into pure white like a spreading pool from where the skeleton's fingers touched. As with everything the younger vasto lorde produced, the shell-like skin hardened and fossilized.

As did the narrow, continuous beam of the cero, piercing through his elder's sternum and continuing on as a solid lance of bleached white.

The petrified hollow fell with a resounding thud as the hands keeping it balanced fell limp. An instant later it was joined on the floor by the slumped and bleeding arrancar whose mask and form crumbled back into that of an ancient barbarian lord as he succumbed to the gaping hole in his chest.

For a moment all was still.

#Author's Notes#

I had thought, all the way up until Rukia fought old two-heads, that Ichigo was actually Kaien's reincarnation. It made sense, right? Because the only ways out of the cycle of souls are getting eaten by a hollow, which is undone when the hollow is purified, and quincy arrow. Since Kaien died by zanpakuto, obviously his soul traveled on and was reborn into a living human, Ichigo, hence the resemblances right?

Nope, he somehow ended up getting eaten and having his body used against his comrades again. In particular, the same soldier under his command that he traumatized the first time this happened. His luck sucks.

Yoshino is the only bount that can reproduce. How do we know this? Because Tatsuki's her child. Only, since all other bounts are infertile, Yoshino had to cheat on Jin to have had her. And really, at any point does it explain how they know Yoshino can reproduce in the anime, cause I don't remember it.

You can see the resemblance in the fact that they both use fire, which is in no way a basis for genetic relationship, but since heaven-striking-moon-type zanpakuto, quincy powers and other spirit based traits apparently breed true in all examples we see...

Also I can't find anything that tells when the unknown zanpakuto arc occurred relative to the main story line, hence it and the beast swords happen before Hueco Mundo by my discretion.

Oh and elder's and other's aren't words by site spellchecker standards.


End file.
